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Alice Johnson (A Nightmare on Elm Street)
Alice Johnson is a fictional character in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' franchise, portrayed by Lisa Wilcox. Alice is the protagonist of the fourth and fifth films. In The Dream Master, Alice has the ability to gain the "dream powers" of Freddy Krueger's victims. In The Dream Child, Freddy begins to use Alice's unborn son Jacob as a way to return and she defeats him with the help of the spirits of Amanda Krueger and Jacob. In the original script for Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Alice was set to return but this idea was eventually scrapped. Alice also appears as a main character in the novels, comics, and Freddy vs Jason vs Ash: The Nightmare Warriors. Alice has generally been met with positive reviews with many critics praising Wilcox's performance. Personality Alice has many different aspects to her personality, and her personality develops greatly during her confrontation with Freddy Krueger. In The Dream Master, Alice first appears as a quiet, socially awkward girl who lacks the confidence to talk to people, and helpless in terms of defending herself. The most prominent feature of Alice's is her obsession with dreaming. She often day dreaming things that she doesn't dare to do in real life. Though her friends' death deeply saddens her, Rick Johnson and Kristen Parker in particular, each death of her friends comes a new ability or attribute that enables her to face Freddy. After Rick's death, as she is able to stand up for herself against her alcholic father, and develop the necessary courage and abilities that makes her a fearsome nemesis of Freddy Krueger. At the end, she is able to recall a nursery rhyme that forces the evil to face itself. In The Dream Child, although she is no longer the shy girl she once was, Alice remains a gentle, modest figure and doesn't want to draw too much attention on herself. She displays a sarcastic sense of humor. Though she shows great concerns after she realizes Freddy can get into her dreams while she is awake, and Dan's death has deeply saddened her, she doesn't fall into depression and it's her morality and courage that enable her to eventually defeat Krueger once again. She greatly adores her unborn child Jacob, and has a fiery attitude to Dan's parents who attempt to coerce her to let them adopt Jacob once he is born. History ''The Dream Master'' ]]In her first movie, Alice appeared as a perpetual daydreamer. She is hopelessly optimistic, despite the death of their mother and their father slipping further and further into alcoholism. Alice attends Springwood High with her brother Rick Johnson, and friends Sheila and Debbie. She harbors a crush on school jock Dan Jordan. After the death of Joey Crusel and Roland Kincaid, Kristen confesses to Alice that she hates to dream. Alice tells her of the Dream Master rhyme that her mother used to tell her when she was a child. Despite her best efforts to use it, Kristen fails to gain control of her dreams with Freddy Krueger, bringing in Alice. Before Kristen dies she passes over her dream powers of gymnastics and the ability to bring people in and out of her dreams. Unfortunately, the power had to pass through Freddy in order to reach Alice. Upon waking, Alice and Rick rush over to Kristen's home to see her bedroom ignited in flames, with Kristen already dead. Several days later, Alice enters into the school bathroomwhere she meets her friend Sheila. She finds out that Shelia is very tired and then asks her if she had a nightmare last night, however, Sheila tells her that she was going over her homework all last night. After she leaves, Alice sits down and begins to smoke but she realizes that she never smoked before. Later of that day, while sitting in class for her physics exam along with Sheila, Alice begins to dream again, this time finding Freddy in her classroom. His target this time isn't her, but Sheila instead, who suffers from asthma. Alice is strapped into her chair while Freddy kills Shelia with a kiss that sucks all the air out from her lungs in front of Alice. Despite Alice's best efforts, Sheila is already dead and Alice gains some of Sheila's abilities. After the death of Sheila, Alice realizes that Freddy used Kristen's dream power on her to bring victims into his nightmarish world. Alice next begins to sleep in class, this time with devasting results, as Freddy kills her brother by stabbing him in the chest. At his funeral, she promises never to daydream again, and makes plans with Dan Jordan and Debbie Stevens to go to Debbie's and figure out a battle strategy. Unfortunately for Alice, her father is paranoid about all the deaths going on and forbids Alice from going out the house. She falls asleep, dreaming that she sneaks out and winds up at the movie theater. A gust of wind picks up inside the theater and soon becomes a spinning vortex that sucks her into the movie theater screen. Here she has a face-to-face encounter with the dreamstalker, who tells Alice to bring him more victims. Because of freddy's manipulation of her power, Debbie becomes the next target. Alice wakes up and goes to meet Dan in a hurry, but they find they are stuck in a time loop and trapped in a dream within a dream. Debbie meets freddy as she is working out. In Debbie's nightmare, Freddy breaks her arms and then changes her into a six-legged roach, crushing her into pieces and killing her. After Debbie's death, Alice and Dan find Freddy standing in the middle of the road and attempt to run him down. In reality, they crash into a tree, leading a wounded Dan to be taken to the hospital and prepped for surgery to repair his injuries. Before Dan's operation, she tells Dan not to fall asleep. Stealing her father's car, she runs home and prepares for final battle as Dan goes under. Seeing in the mirror that Freddy has his hands on Dan, Alice jumps through it, landing in the hospital room and helping Dan out of his tubes. Trying to escape, they find themselves stuck in a long tube that Freddy spins, sending them hurling through the stained glass and to the church floor below. Dan then hemorrhages on the table and is pulled out of the dream by doctors in the real world, leaving Alice to face Freddy herself. In the church, Alice begins her final battle against Freddy. She uses the abilities from her friends and her brother to fight her enemy. She hits him in the face, chest, torso, abdomen and legs for several times, then uses Sheila's electronic zapper to create a strong laser light that goes through his stomach, weakening him. He climbs up again and uses his claws to slice across Alice's torso, and beats her on the church ground. Alice manages to escape his grasp, remembers the Dream Master rhyme, inciting the souls of Freddy's victims to escape his body into the realm of good dreams. At the end, Alice and Dan are now a couple. ''The Dream Child'' ]]Alice and Dan are set to graduate from Springwood High and take off to Europe for the summer. Alice's father has cleaned up and become sober, but Dan's parents are seemingly disapproving of Alice. They have made new friends in the form of Yvonne Miller, Greta Gibson and Mark Gray. Alice is concerned the morning of her graduation as she falls asleep while taking a shower, seeing water come out from the wall and tap, and filling the bathroom. She almost drowns to her death but thanks to her dream power, she jumps out from the door of the bathroom successfully. Later she suffers from another daydream where she is Amanda Krueger, about to be raped and impregnated with Freddy by the 100 maniac patients. Her revelations concern Dan. After her ceremony she walks to work, Crave Inn. Before getting there Alice finds herself trapped in a dream, even though she's awake. She is led to a gothic-style asylum in which Amanda Krueger's rape happened, and watches in horror, Freddy's birth. Infant Freddy rushes into the church where she defeated him last time. Alice is knocked unconscious trying to stop him. When she wakes up, he is now reborn. Arriving at work four hours late, she calls Dan in a panic to come to her. He falls asleep and dies on his way; she witnesses the carnage and faints. At the hospital the doctors reveal to Alice that she is pregnant with Dan's child. She begins to see the personification of her son, not realizing who he is. Alice informs her friends of Freddy's existence, and they are all skeptical, until they all begin to die one by one, starting with Greta. She is killed by Freddy after being overfed with her own internal organs, during this time Alice is busy prepping dinner at home, seeing the inflated Greta appear on her fridge door, Alice attempted to pull her out of the door but Greta is snatched by Freddy. She died of choking and blood-loss. Alice goes to Mark's father's warehouse to talk to Mark with Yvonne. Yvonne remains convinced that Greta's death was an accident and shortly leaves to work a shift at the pool. Mark and Alice begin discussing the events of Greta and Freddy during which Alice leaves to make some coffee. When she returns, she spots Mark who has disappeared into a drawing, she quickly empowers herself into the paper and runs to rescue Mark, eventually remeeting Jacob at the 1428 Elm Street house. She runs up the stairs after him, discovering something important. Mark, now 100% convinced of Alice's paranoia, tells her to go speak to Yvonne about her pregnancy and Freddy. Getting checked up at the hospital about Jacob, Alice soon enters a dream where she sees Freddy nurturing over Jacob and feeding the innocent fetus the souls of Dan & Greta, her paranoid truth concerns the doctor, who phoned Dan's parents about Alice. Dan's parents soon visit Alice about Jacob. She is not happy to discover that they want to adopt Jacob after he is born due to Alice's severe paranoia that is affecting Jacob's health. Alice attempts a plan with Mark, while Yvonne is at the swimming pool practicing, eventually Yvonne is kidnapped by Freddy and rescued by Alice. Mark, having fallen asleep, is sucked into a nightmare where his comic book style has taken over the warehouse and is butchered by Freddy, who turns him into a paper character and slices him into pieces. After Mark's death, Alice's father takes her home, she tells Yvonne to go to the now-abandoned asylum and release Amanda's spirit from the tower. She then enters the dream world and fights off Freddy, impaling him on spikes and throwing him into the room full of a hundred maniacs (using her Dream Master power to control them and defeat Freddy Krueger). They attack him and tear his arm off, but his arm suddenly turns into tarantulas. Seemingly defeated, Freddy pulls her into his Dream Core, a M. C. Escher-like labyrinth, which mixes all the dream sights in previous four films (including the Nightmare Factory, 1428 Elm Street, The Westin Hills Asylum and The Church). Freddy goes back into hiding inside Alice as she finally catches up to Jacob. Jacob tells Alice that Freddy has been hiding inside her, which is how he found Jacob. Alice drives Freddy out, but because of the strong battle, she loses her strength to fight back. Yvonne, meanwhile, enters the tower and releases Amanda's spirit, where she enters the dream world and tells Jacob that Alice will not triumph and that he must use his power on Freddy. Jacob shoots what appears to be a tongue beam at Freddy, and the souls of Dan, Greta, and Mark are released, and Freddy is turned back into an infant, as is Jacob. Freddy and Jacob are absorbed by Amanda and Alice, respectively. Alice walks through a door into a light as Freddy attempts to claw his way out as the church doors close. After three months, Alice has given birth to Jacob and is finally at peace from their nightmares. Together with Mr.Johnson and Yvonne, they are having a happy and peaceful picnic. Later Story It was confirmed Alice takes her son Jacob Johnson and her father away from Springwood after the events of The Dream Child, possibly for her college study, or more likely, escaping from Freddy's attack. Since Alice has never appeared in any Nightmare films again after Nightmare 5, it can be confirmed she lives a normal but happy life outside Springwood without Freddy's nightmares along with her family. Other Appearances In Literature Alice has an unofficial appearance in novel side stories. A few years have passed since #5, Alice and a more grown Jacob have returned to Springwood in order to finish up her father's belongings after he died (implied to be by Freddy) Alice is uneasy by returning but eventually reunites with Yvonne who is now a police officer. Freddy Vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors Still unofficial, Alice appears in year 2009, when Freddy Krueger returned with Jason Voorhees and began to wreak havoc among the citizens of Washington. Alice reveals to hero Ash Williams that her years of being a Dream Master have left her terminally ill, and she is dying. Freddy succeeds in killing Alice, who then releases her dream powers to Jacob, who then revives the spirit of the Elm Street Children. Dream Power Alice was the Dream Master, or the guardian of the positive gate, the gateway to good dreams. And as such, she had the power (and responsibility) to guard the sleeper whilst they dreamed. Being the Dream Master, Alice had the unique ability to absorb the dream powers of Freddy's most recent victims. Whenever Freddy killed and absorbed the soul of one of her friends, she would automatically absorb that very same victim's dream power. A unique side-effect of Alice's Dream Master power was that it also worked to some extent outside of the dream, or whenever she was awake. For example, after Kristen was killed by Freddy and her soul absorbed, Alice began to say and do things that were normally attributed to Kristen (smoking for example). She later began to repeat the mottoes of her friends, such as "we've got matching luggage," "mind over matter," or her brother's battle cry of "banzai!". So it can be assumed that her Dream Master power had some strong empathic attributes. Alice later uses most, if not all, of the dream powers she absorbed from Freddy's victims during her battle with him. She most notably used her brother's dream power of karate mastery and Sheila's power to charge the sound frequency device to shoot a powerful sonic laser beam through Freddy's abdomen. It can also be assumed she used Kristen's dream power of gymastics mastery as she performed olympic-level aerial flips and back flips during her fight with Freddy. On an important note, Alice also wielded some ability to guard the dreamer whilst they dreamed. This was shown when Kristen was dreaming and she meets a little girl outside of Nancy's old house and on the beach. This little girl was in fact a younger version of Alice that acted as a remnant of her dream guardian power. This version of Alice didn't display much power, other than having the ability to possibly sense Freddy's incoming presence. Aside from Kristen, Alice never acted as a direct guardian for other dreamers whilst they slept. The exact reason for this is unknown. Before she died, Kristen also passes on her telepathic power to pull people into her dreams to Alice as a last minute resort to help Alice defend herself against Freddy. However, the power flowed into Freddy first before passing into Alice,because of this each time Alice dreamed, she would accidently pull one of her closest loved ones into the dream with her, thus allowing Freddy to easily devour her friends' souls. This power hindered Alice for the most part of the movie before she fully embraced her Dream Master power to defeat Freddy. Alice displays her dream power again in The Dream Child, but this time Freddy is also hiding in her body, waiting for his chance. After Alice becomes pregnant with Jacob, Freddy quickly gets into Jacob's mind, connects his dreams to Alice, and uses Alice's dream power to bring him victims. Because of the many feats she was able to perform with her Dream Master power, Alice is easily one of the more powerful characters introduced. She was Freddy's supernatural opposite in the dream world. While Freddy absorbed souls, Alice too would grow stronger with each death by absorbing someone's dream power, which finally makes her from a normal daydreamer, into a Nightmare Legend. Trivia *Alice is the first and only Nightmare heroine able to face Freddy twice and stay alive. * Alice is the only Nightmare heroine to have her hair color changed. While her hair was reddish brown in ''The Dream Master'', it becomes strawberry-blonde in ''The Dream Child''. * Alice is the first and only Nightmare heroine to possess the Dream Master power. *Alice works at the "Crave Inn", obviously an homage to series creator Wes Craven. *Alice's eyes appeared in the center of the poster of The Dream Master. *Ellie Cornell, best known for playing Rachel in Halloween 4 and 5'' auditioned for the role of Alice. *According to casting director Annette Benson, over 600 girls auditioned for the role of Alice. *The dialogue between Alice and her brother Rick Johnson after the death of Kristen Parker was improvised by the actors. *In ''The Dream Child, Lisa Wilcox's name appears in the opening credits, but not the end credits. *Alice bears character similarities with Heather Langenkamp Porter in New Nightmare. **Both of them are young mothers that have lost their partners. **Both of them have their sons possessed/controlled by Freddy. **Both of them had their final battle together with their son in a gothic-style Dream World. *Alice is the first Nightmare heroine to have a child, followed by Heather Langenkamp Porter in New Nightmare. * in part 5, on the scene where she stabs Freddy in the mouth, she says, "Why don't you just shut up", but in the flashback in Freddy vs. Jason, she says, "Die you mother fucker!" Quotes *"You know, you are one major-league hunk." (To her crush Dan, in her daydream) *"All right; I'm gonna punch his ticket in." (After she finds Freddy standing on the road) *"Yeah, I can think. I can think of how sick I am of watching you drink your life away, and taking it out on me." (To her father Dennis, in her daydream after he insults the meal she prepared for him) *"You don't quite get it. He's not a nighstalker. You're gonna have to do more than bench-presses to beat him." (To Debbie at her brother Rick's funeral) *"You have no rights to stop me!" (To her father Dennis, right after her brother's death)) *"Evil will see itself, and it shall die! Let them out! You're dead, Krueger!" *"Mark, give it up, it's hopeless!" (Jokes on Mark, about his crush on Greta) *"Come out now, Krueger. Your game is over!" (To Freddy, where she later defeats him) *"You can't come back, I locked the door on you!" (After she discovers Freddy's coming back) *"Come down stairs. He won't hurt you, he needs us both." (To Jacob) *"Alright, Krueger, this time is for keeps!" (To Freddy, now she is ready for battle) *"Good night, asshole!" (After she defeats Freddy once again) Reception In his book Horror Films of the 1980s, John Kenneth Muir noted the following: :"Alice's blossoming is coupled with the mirror (an important symbol in the film). When she is weak and diffident, the mirror is loaded with photographs that obscure her reflection. The message is that she doesn't want to see herself; she'd rather hide from what she considers ugly. But as Alice's strength grows, she takes down the photos and countenances her own image. What she finds there is gorgeous and strong."Muir, J.K. Horror films of the 1980s. Muir believes that Alice's transformation "is the perfect counterpoint to Freddy's storyline." Whereas Freddy's reflection encompasses evil, Alice's "reflection is what makes her powerful." According to Muir, the character of Alice Johnson, goes against the "final girl" stereotype in that she is a "greasy-haired ugly duckling finds her inner strength and beauty through self-actualization.." Furthermore, he adds that "from Nancy to Alice, the women on Elm Street are tough, resourceful, powerful role models for teenagers, ones who--''mirror''--reality in their efforts to navigate high school, and indeed life." As Muir summarizes: :"is afraid of what her child will be; she wants to protect it; and she has to fend off Dan's parents, who want to adopt the child...must deal with all of these competing emotions and stresses, not to mention Freddy...." Monika Bartyzel stated that Alice is different when compared to other final girls and that her empowerment over the course of the films became an essential plot point, she said: : At first, she’s the shy, introverted hanger-on to her much more wild friends (much like Laurie Strode). She considers herself a non-entity, preferring to mask her mirror, and thereby herself, with her friends’ images. When they die, however, and she mystically consumes portions of their strength, the pictures come down in chunks as she wipes away the old Alice to become the active fighter. Instead of teamwork, the team is infused into one previously passive being, a mecha-human designed to defeat the dream monster. Alice is one of the few true and ongoing Final Girls; she survives two films, saves her child from demonic possession, and disappears from the Nightmare on Elm Street world without ever succumbing to the inevitability of death in a future installment. The website Lady Geek Girl and Friends praised the intelligence and strength of the character saying, "Letting go of the past, suiting up for battle with the accoutrements of her fallen friends, and finally looking at herself in the mirror and being damn pleased with what she sees, ugh, it’s one of the best sequences in the series. In the ensuing battle we see just how powerful Alice really is as she is the first heroine in the series to face Freddy in the dream, alone, and triumph. The fight takes her to the limits of what she can do, and everything she’s gained from her friends helps, but in the end it’s her own intelligence that defeats the monster." Similarly, Tommy Watanabe praised the strength of the character, saying: : "In the fifth installment of the franchise, Alice fights to protect her unborn child from the possession of Freddy's spirit using more of her abilities, even invading the nightmare of her new bestie (wow, Alice, you move on quick) Yvonne by spearing Freddy with a pipe as he tries to kill Yvonne. Capable and creative, Alice proves to be a strong woman readily available to protect her friends (or attempt to, in the case of comic book artist Mark and aspiring model Greta) and family at any cost. More importantly, she had sex... and survived!" Development Characterization In an interview Lisa Wilcox described Alice as an outcast that a lot of people can relate to, she said: : “I immediately fell in love with the story of Alice, she’s a daydreamer who was kind of pathetic at the beginning of Part Four, and I think we all can relate to that feeling in some ways. Actually, I was totally a wallflower in high school so there was a lot of myself in the character of Alice. There’s a lot of Lisa on that screen.” Wilcox also mentioned the character development of Alice saying, "“As an actress, though, what made Alice remarkable is that audiences watch Alice become stronger and stronger as the movie plays along, and you can’t help but be a part of her journey because she’s so relatable." Gallery References External links * * Alice Johnson at A Nightmare on Elm Street (wiki) * Alice Johnson at Heroes (wiki) * Alice Johnson at Horror Film (wiki) Category:A Nightmare on Elm Street characters Category:Horror film characters Category:Child characters in film Category:Final girls Category:Fictional karateka Category:Fictional psychics Category:Fictional stalking victims Category:Fictional waiting staff Category:Fictional teenage parents Category:Fictional sole survivors Category:Fictional characters from Ohio Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1988